Should Jonah Goldberg pay up? *

While debating the war at National Review Online two years ago, Times op-ed columnist from the right Jonah Goldberg offered the following wager:

Let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now).

He even goaded anti-war professor Juan Cole about the terms, writing: "Money where your mouth is, doc. One caveat: Because I don't think it's right to bet on such serious matters for personal gain, if I win, I'll donate the money to the USO." Jeff Cohen at AlterNet argues today that Tribune should help Goldberg pay up. "It's time to hold media corporations like Tribune responsible for elevating the Goldbergs and their reckless predictions -- as they strangle newspapers and silence serious journalists like Bob Scheer."

* Goldberg responds: Calls it a "non-bet: at The Corner.